Underwater farm and Martian eclipse — April’s best science images

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The shots were selected by the photo team.

Fire-loving plants. After the 2016 Soberanes fire in Monterey County, California, soil samples were found to contain a species of fungus. It is one of several species that increased in abundance after the fire, which led to a decline of up to 70% in the number of microorganism species in burnt areas.

The floods were terrible. The South African government declared a state of emergency after days of heavy rain caused flooding and mudslides. At least 400 people were killed in the floods, and dozens are still missing. Thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged due to the collapse of roads and bridges. A man walks around a damaged bridge.

There is a Martian eclipse. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this sequence of images of Phobos, one of Mars' two moons. Over the past 18 years, several Mars rovers have seen Phobos crossing in front of the Sun. This is the highest frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse that has ever been taken. Scientists can observe subtle shifts in Phobos over time by observing these eclipses.

There is a mummy mystery. Carol Anne Barsody, an archaeology student at Cornell University, is working on a 3D model of a mummified bird that will be included in a multisensory exhibition at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Egyptian mummy had been in a box in the university's collections for a long time. Barsody's investigations have shown that the remains are of a male African sacred ibis and are between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. This species was often mummified because of its association with death and the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic.

An angel. The angel wings were created by two galaxies colliding and releasing dust and gas. The system was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope after being identified during a citizen-science project. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers helped the project sort through data from robotic telescopes. The same approach is being used to locate distant black holes.

NASA, W. Keel, and J.

There are conditions like space. NASA has put Psyche through a series of tests in preparation for its upcoming trip to an asteroid that lies in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. The spaceship is on its way to the vacuum chamber at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to undergo thermal-vacuum testing to assess how well it can heat and cool itself. The craft will be launched later this year. It will collect data for 21 months after reaching the asteroid.

There is a deep-sea saucer. Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute describe a flying-saucer-like species of crown jellyfish. Atolla reynoldsi has between 26 and 39 coiled tentacles. It was identified by combing through video footage from the bay at a depth of between 1,013 and 3,189 metres.

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